Death

How did you come to terms with the idea of nothing happening after you die?

I still have issues with the fact that one day I'm just going to shut down like a PC and that's it. I'm not expecting an afterlife, heaven, hell and all that made-up bullshit, but I still can't fully accept it.

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What you say about the pain one can experience in life is spot-on, life is shit, granted we have it better than some, but never-the-less life on the whole it sucks. But, the view I have of life and a view I'd love to impart on you, is not of the whole, it's those fleeting moments, noticing an orange sunset glinting off wet leaves of a tree, that feeling you get witnessing a child help another child in a park after a tumble. A kind of "look after the pennies and the pounds will look after themselves" kinda of thing.

I'd agree with Meghan, that we are lucky to be alive, even the sheeple. Even though some choose to remain as sheep, they've won the opportunity to do something with it. If they don't "wake up" and then... sucks to be them, what a waste it is, to have lived a life without opening your eyes.

On the abuse issue, I see it in a way of "would I swap places with Meghan, to have her insight of how bad her life can be, to see how good life can be?" Probably not (Sorry Meghan), but would I love to see life the way she might? Hell yeah. For me, I feel I do Meghan and the many others like her a great disservice, in failing to try and see my life in the way she sees hers, whilst trying to make the most of those little things.

Some don't choose to remain as sheep, they were told for so long that they are sheep that they reach a point when even they believe it. People don't have their eyes closed by choice. Other people close their eyes from birth. That's the thing that really sucks.

Would you not agree then, your existence, our existence (as my ego would like to think) as more "enlightened" people, is of value to the lives of these people?

I take it as a mission to enlighten people, to get them out of there boxes and see the world and the cosmos in all it's grandeur and wonderment. Only the other day I enlightened my brother (nearly 40 years of age), that our star is only one of maybe 100bn others in our galaxy, he nearly tripped over his jaw. How the fuck has he got to nearly 40 without experiencing the awe of the numbers involved?

Some even reach 100... when people are brainwashed from a young age is not their fault for growing up in zombie-like people who don't know what the hell is going on. It depends a lot on the character of every person. If someone is a pushover, it's unlikely for that person to ever wake up and see the reality as it is.

And that's a very sad situation indeed. There's sometimes no way to get through to a person who is so entrenched in that view, that they can't see the splendor life has to offer, but one can only do so much in offering a better outlook on life. If I were to dwell on their misfortune, it would be to the detriment of my own happiness. I know it sounds heartless to say "fuck 'em", but I'm only one man with only one life, I can only lead by example and hope that they can empathise with me and my awe of life.

meditation has helped me accept death. Fear of death is attached to thinking that we are permanent, and we get scared of our permanence on this earth ending; we are scared that everything that we are will vanish. But once you accept the impermanence of your being, the truth that you are already constantly being born and are constantly dying (that your thoughts, actions, and perceptions are always being born, and are always dying) then you can accept death. We are actually already dead, we just don't perceive it that way because our perceptions only exist in the present. This may not help you, and it probably seems bizarre, but viewing things in this manner has quelled my fears of death, and has allowed me to be a happy atheist. I hope peace comes to on this issue

Would you say; thinking about it leads to being bothered about it or being bothered about it leads to thinking about it?

Which was what my "get a life" faux pas was all about. "Get a life" in my comment was an attempt to direct your thoughts towards a more positive outlook, rather than dwelling on the prospect of Mr E.Nigma not being on ThinkAtheist no more, to think about the positive impacts your life or words may have on others. If you see where I'm coming from.